Oh You Comfy Huh?: Inappropriate

Five days a week, I take the subway to work. I don’t want to deal with all of the ratchetness that surrounds me when I take a seat, so I turn the music up in my headphones. But I turn it down once I walk into the office building. I can’t risk the chance of having my coworkers hear particular verses from Kanye West or Wiz Khalifa.

Or their track covers for that matter…

Anyway,

yesterday I had to get my ID badge renewed, so I listened to my music as I took the elevator down to the 12th floor. I got off, turned off my music and entered an office with two Black women and one White guy sitting at a table awaiting my arrival. The two women were quiet, and one of them seemed a little bit vexed. That may have been because the White guy was listening to 311 (it’s a band) out-loud on his Macbook Pro. Rockin’ out too. Singing along and everything. This is only one of many examples of White people showing how comfortable they are in environments in which they are the majority.

It has to be about comfort. How else could that 311 fanboy be okay with rocking the wrinkled Old Navy casual khakis with the torn-up cuffs to work?

No, seriously. Half of the White guys on my floor wear ridiculously old khaki pants with holes on the bottom of the cuffs.

Don’t get me wrong, Black people do inappropriate stuff at work too, but I see that happen more when most of the employees are Black (or at least a good number of them). Like at my old job when I used to blast a Jay-Z Pandora playlist on the media speakers when the boss was gone. Or when one of my coworkers tried to get away with wearing Jordans to the office. Those things happened when all my coworkers were Black.

That’s why, at my current (and less Black) job, none of the Black guys were down with pulling a prank on one of our managers. All the White coworkers were like, “Come on! It’ll be hilarious!”. But I’m against partaking in any activities that resemble me scaring or attacking White people. Niggas get shot for less. Seriously.

Black people can be comfortable around White people in the office. It’s just going to take some time before that becomes the norm. It would require a level of social equality that I have never witnessed or experienced. But when it eventually does become the norm, as ridiculous as this may sound, I want us to be comfortable with doing some inappropriate shit in the office too. Listen to music out-loud, look bummy, pull pranks. Do the electric slide at your desk, Black family cookout style, to Before I Let Go. As a matter of fact, go ahead and have yourself a little comfy Black moment with some Frankie Beverly and Maze. It’s on you if you want to use head phones in though.